Every year around Oscar nomination time, there are at least 10 recognized films the general public will have never heard of: the five live-action and five animated shorts nominated in the Academy’s “Best Short Film” categories. But it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. The Michigan Theater is currently screening all the 2009 Oscar-nominated short films in two separate programs or one combined, discounted program. The Daily picks apart the best and worst from this cinematic smorgasbord.

ANIMATED

“Oktapodi”

Short but sweet, this two-minute French CGI lark follows an octopus as he attempts to save his significant other from the clutches of a restaurateur. The film's slightly insane pace makes it play like a deleted scene from “Finding Nemo.” Superb art direction is on display as the characters race through a gorgeously designed hilly seaside village.

“Pieces of Love” (“Le Maison en Petits Cubes”)

Every frame of this exquisite Japanese film could be sold as a watercolor painting. The concept is engrossing, if melancholy: An old man lives alone in a flooded village, and he must constantly add new floors onto his house to survive above the rising tide. As he scuba dives through his submerged home, he recounts happy memories of his family from years gone by. Of the five nominees in this category, “Pieces” is most deserving of the prize.

“This Way Up”

Considering two hallmarks of British comedy are slapstick and making fun of dead people, it should come as no surprise that this short (concerning two bumbling morticians who must transport a recently deceased woman to her grave by foot) comes out of the United Kingdom. “This Way Up” is morbidly hilarious as the heroes get caught in one ridiculous obstacle after another — it’s like Tim Burton by way of Rube Goldberg.

“Lavatory — Lovestory”

In this minimalist Russian short, a lonely public bathroom attendant finds mysterious bouquets in her tip jar and tries to deduce her secret admirer from the many gentlemen occupying the toilets. (It seems tip jars in bathrooms and restroom caretakers of the opposite sex are commonplace in Russia.) The film is cute, but the black outlines of characters on white backgrounds tend to resemble a Red Bull commercial.

“Presto”

The Pixar short-making machine strikes again with this zany magician-versus-rabbit tale (which opened for last summer’s “WALL-E” in theaters). It’s laugh out loud funny, with more excessively violent physical humor than the studio has perhaps ever dared. While “Presto” doesn’t meet the imaginative heights of “For the Birds” or “Geri’s Game,” it works wonders as an extended Tex Avery homage.

Bonus Films

To give your buck added bang, the Animated Shorts showcase also includes five “extra commended” (not nominated) films from 2008. Four of these are animal tales. Two of them, “Gopher Broke” and “Hot Dog” (both from the United States) are goofy slapstick; one, the U.K.’s “John and Karen,” is cheeky and dialogue-based; and one, the U.K.’s “Varmints,” is just bizarre (a humanoid dog attempts to protect his meadow from the evils of urban sprawl ... and giant jellyfish). The remaining film, France’s “Skhizein,” shows a man who’s struck by a meteor and finds he’s literally beside himself. It’s the best offering of all the shorts. Why this engrossing and darkly humorous work didn’t receive an actual nomination is mind-boggling.

Andrew Lapin

LIVE ACTION

“On the Line” (“Auf Der Strecke”)

Yes, Lance Bass of *NSYNC is in a 2001 movie with the same title. No worries, though: This German film is much better. A department store security guard is madly in love with a girl who works in the book department. He is so enchanted by her that he watches her on his surveillance cameras.